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Local church to host active shooter training

The Walker Baptist Association will be holding active shooter training at Northside Baptist Church in Jasper on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

The free training, which will be held at Northside, will begin at 7 p.m. and last until around 8 p.m. It will be led by T.J. Armstrong.

David Miller, director of missions for the Walker Baptist Association, said the goal of the training is to give churches some ideas about security measures they can take to keep themselves as safe as possible.

“We’ll be covering immediate needs of making sure you have some kind of security measures in your church and what are some things we can do if we have an active shooter in a church building,” Miller said. “We’re hosting this just to try to help our community.”

All churches and religious groups are invited to attend.

Miller said that the idea to hold this training came about as a result of the church shooting in Texas earlier this month.

“We feel like we’ve reached a place, even in church life, that we need to prepare for situations we’ve never prepared for before,” Miller said.

“It’s a sad thing to have to think about doing [active shooter training], but it’s just the day and age we live in. We don’t have a choice anymore but to prepare ourselves.”

The Walker Baptist Association will also be holding security ministry training on Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Northside. ‘That training will be led by Mark Wakefield, the disaster relief coordinator for the Alabama Baptist State Convention, and will include learning how to remain focused on ministering while still being secure.

Northside Baptist Church is located on Highway 78, between McDonald’s and the Jasper Mall.